Any experts who can explain my glasses prescription?

[Freeekedout]

I've been finding it hard focusing on the TV when I've been looking at something close up, although generally I feel I can see quite a bit in the distance and pretty good close up. I've been experiencing more regular headaches which feel like migraines, so I went to the opticians today. I have never worn glasses.

I haven't got a clue about what my prescription means, can anybody explain it please? I felt happy with the optician's advice to use glasses for driving, cinema and other long distance activities, and she said I wouldn't need glasses for close up work.

However, when I saw the lady after the optician, she was very keen to persuade me to buy super duper very expensive lenses (£160 EACH!!!) which would mean £320 plus the frames for what I thought would be a fairly weak prescription 😱

The optician ticked the 'single vision' box to indicate which lenses would suit me best, but these 'digital lenses' sounded very much like bifocal or varifocals to me. Was she trying to sell me something I don't need? They were quite pushy and when I said I was going to go away and come back with a friend for a second opinion on the frames, they were very keen to get me back on Saturday. As a complete novice, I would appreciate your advice!

They should’ve really explained your prescription to you before trying to sell you everything under the sun. I personally wouldn’t invest nearly £500 for glasses with a prescription like yours as you have low/mild prescription. You don’t have a strong prescriptions and whilst there is technology in expensive lenses I don’t think you’d get the benefit from them. Especially as you wouldn’t be wearing them all of the time.

The sphere is the strength the lense is needed to be to correct the vision, in one eye you don’t need anything in the other it’s only slight at -0.25. The main part is that you have an astigmatism (nothing to worry about) so your eye is shaped more like a rugby ball than football, most people have this, I do too! The -0.50 / 0.25 shows the lens power needed to correct the astigmatism (Your eyes aren’t not quite round, the higher the number the more oval the eye) and the axis is the orientation of the astigmatism and basically let’s the lab who makes the lense the Correct position needed on the lenses. Whilst you have a low sphere prescription the astigmatism does change the overall prescription, but still it won’t be significantly. What your optometrist has recommend is probably for when your eyes are concentrating the most with with distance activities, this will help to stop your eyes from tiring out.

The +0.75 is for close up/reading prescription usually starts for +0.50 and goes upto +4.50, so indicates you could see some benefit for glasses when doing close up/reading but nothing major and really only prescribed for +1.00. For those over 40 usually presbyopia happens so if you’re over 40 this is just a natural occurance.

If you do a lot of close up looking I.e on phones, tablets, reading or hobbies make sure to give your eyes a break every 10minutes or so and and look into the distance. This should help your eyes to continue to adjust.

There is a brand called Zeiss for lenses who do digital lenses. It’s a type of lense not necessarily something that is a Varifocal, you don’t really have the prescription for a varifocal. They’re probably trying to up sell, as there would be basic lenses available that would do the job for you.

Honestly Now you have you prescription i would go to another opticians to see what they advise in terms of lenses. I always think an anti glare coating is worthwhile for driving especially of an evening and with darker night it’s worth it. Anti Blue light coating for the lenses are good too but again depends on how much time you spend on the computer, tv and your phone etc.

You don’t need to spend a lot, some opticians will have a range of glasses that are covered in cost on an nhs voucher, these usually are also available to purchase privately. They’d probably be a good starter for you and they’d be low price. Often the opticians will select the frames from their own suppliers so don’t think they’d be horrid and the lenses would also be from their own suppliers, the nhs part is they just submit the voucher forms to them for payment.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it so thoroughly. I agree, there probably should've been more of a focus on explaining the prescription before trying to sell me expensive lenses. I will take the prescription to a different opticians to see what they recommend with the lenses.

I am a bit confused though - why would I need a prescription that corrects near and far distance? Is it even possible to correct them both at the same time?! If I should only wear them for driving and distance, why would there be the element for 'near'? It's so confusing!!

I'd go to somewhere like Specsavers, I got a pair of glasses plus free sunglasses for approx £170 (and my vision is very poor, strong lenses needed). I think the reason they are trying to push special lenses is although the optician said you only need single vision lenses they have still given a value for the "near" part of your prescription (which as poster said above, is very low and not really in major need of correction).

Thank you.

So if they were to make up a prescription, as the correction for near vision is minimal, could they just omit that bit and do standard lenses for distance? Would that keep the cost down?

I used to work in an opticians and a patient would never be shown glasses before discussing with them the prescription and what they wanted. Where I used to be the optometrist would also advise on what they think would be best based off what they had discussed with the patient too, and would request for us to explain certain lenses that would be beneficial.

When the opticians test your eyes they look at what is needed for both, some people if the prescription is high for both will have varifocals/bifocals , so the one lense is suitable for all aspects of vision, not everybody likes Varifocals or Bifocals so some will have separate pairs of glasses one pair for distance and one pair for reading. So you don’t have to have the near prescription you can just have the distance just explain that when purchasing, as the notes on your prescription say DV then they’re indicating that is what is recommended which is glasses just for distance over near vision glasses. The digital lenses they’ve been trying to incorporate both near and far but that’s just been an up sell, as otherwise they’d have suggested separate pairs of glasses as an option too, and it would be on your notes.

If you wanted reading glasses before committing to an expensive pair You could get ready readers from a cheap shop which are usually a couple of quid in a +0.75 prescription, but really don’t think you’d feel much difference.

Don’t feel intimidated to go back to an independent opticians, I know they’d really appreciate business at the moment - it’s just about finding the right one. Explain you don’t want to spend a lot of glasses and they’ll advise you accordingly. Establish if you’d benefit from the anti reflective coating and mention that to them so they can build a picture of your personal requirements too.

Having single vision lenses are cheaper, but they can also be just as expensive As a varifocal so make it clear you don’t want to spend too much and then they’ll know what to suggest.